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Award-winning filmmakers

The student film “Retrograde” was featured at the Sedona International Film Festival.

A distressed
woman sits alone at a train station, clutching a ticket that holds the promise
of new beginnings. From there, “Retrograde” – a film created by five students
at Northern Arizona University – unfolds in reverse, revealing the series of events
that transpired and led to her to this moment. After winning the annual 73-Hour
Film Festival held on campus, the film was honored again, earning an automatic
screening at the Sedona International Film Festival in February 2013.

Director Alex
Thomas and cinematographer Derek Ellis, now alumni of the electronic media and film program, worked with Jessalyn Carpino – also a recent graduate of the university who plays the lead role – to make
“Retrograde” a possibility.

In November 2012,
Carpino encouraged Thomas to enter the 73-Hour Film Festival, but the student
film director was initially hesitant to take the plunge and commit.

“Jessalyn
called me that night and said, ‘Alex, we have to do the 73-Hour Film Festival,’”
Thomas says. “She had been the actress in the film that had won the previous
year, ‘Ruby and the Wolf.’ I wasn’t sure about it and said I would need to think
it over. She called me again to tell me that we were doing it, and that was
that.”

Fast filming

The basis of
the 73-Hour Film Festival is embedded within the title: student filmmakers have
the course of a weekend – 73 hours – to write, film, and produce a short
feature. To ensure that students are adhering to the festival’s guidelines and starting
production from scratch, the contest provides the aspiring filmmakers with a
general theme and a quote that they must implement within the short.

Through a partnership exclusive to Northern Arizona University, created by the faculty in the School of Communication, the audience's favorite film earns an automatic screening at the Sedona International Film Festival.

Creating “Retrograde”
required a great deal of hard work and dedication from the filmmakers. For
example, ensuring proper lighting for camera work required the crew to begin
shooting early in the morning.

“Derek is an
amazing cinematographer, and wanted that beautiful, golden light of the
morning,” Carpino says. “So, Saturday and Sunday morning, we were up at four.
We really didn’t sleep much the entire weekend. It was hectic.”

The results
were worth it - “Retrograde” received a majority of the audience’s vote for the
best film at the festival. The experience of having their film shown in Sedona paid dividends for the team – in addition to
being in the festival, the crew was granted the opportunity to network with more
prominent filmmakers.

“I’ve never
been in a room that large where someone is watching something that I’ve been a
part of,” Ellis says. “It was a rewarding experience.”

Looking back

Carpino says
having their feature screened at the Sedona International Film Festival for
some of the leaders in filmmaking, like actor David Strathairn and
screen legend Joan Collins, was a humbling, inspiring experience.

“It was great,
because our film was played in front of ‘Chasing Ice,’ an Oscar nominated
documentary,” Carpino says. “The films played back to back, and then later that
night, we were able to see ‘Chasing Ice’ on the Oscar’s broadcast.”

Thomas is
grateful for the positive feedback his film has received, and proud of what his
crew’s feature as accomplished. He explains that the courses he took to earn his
degree helped make “Retrograde” a possibility, noting that the film program at
Northern Arizona University continues to grow and improve with each class of
students who leave their mark on it.

“The thing I
love about the electronic media and film program here is that every single
semester, it grows in leaps and bounds,” Thomas says. “It’s constantly
improving. I am excited to graduate and be able to look back at this program,
five or ten years from now, and see where it’s at.”

Watch “Retrograde”

See the full, four-minute short film produced by
Northern Arizona University students.

The entire cast

“Retrograde”
was directed by Alex Thomas and produced by Zach Russey, with cinematography by
Derek Ellis and Michelle Araque as audio technician. Production assistant Jessalyn
Carpino, a recent graduate of the university who now teaches in Payson, plays
the lead role, and students Scott Dendy, Jaron Druyon, Zach Russey, James
Russey, Fred “Keeper of the Peace,” and Alex Thomas also appear in the short.

The same
crew produced another film, "The Mutable Life of Oscar Clark," that won the Audience Choice Award
at this year’s spring Student Film Festival, and will also be shown at the 2014
Sedona International Film Festival. They plan to submit the film to the
Sundance Film Festival.